Monday, September 04, 2006

The day I became a believer

I was named after the ruling deity in Tiruchendur, a famous sea side temple town at the southern edge of Tamilnadu. Our family visits this temple atleast once a year.

As I grew up, I slowly drifted away, becoming close to being an atheist, but not a full fledged one. Still I never shirked away from visiting the temple. Tiruchendur temple is one of the worst in terms of pestering priests. They literally snatched a hundred rupee note from my hands once. Any regular devotee will have his horror stories to tell about the priests here. The cleanliness (or lack of it) of the beach is something to be seen in person and appreciated. Most of the devotees use the beach as public convenience. Still, the temple is thronged by devotees of Lord Murugan.

All my doubts vanished when I visited the temple yesterday. The temple has a lot of paintings hanging in the outer sanctorum (?), mostly donated by groups of devotees. Most of these painting depict various myths about Murugan. The latest addtion I saw was the one that converted me back into a believer.

It was titled "சுனாமியை வென்ற சுப்ரமணிய சுவாமி" (Subramania who conquered the Tsunami). During the Decemeber 2004 Tsunami that affected the Indian Ocean nations, the sea came into the land everywhere. But in Tiruchendur, the sea receded for about a kilometer or so. This was possible due to the grace of Lord Murugan. The painting had a picture of Murugan showing his palms to the sea, and the sea receding back. For some reason it reminded me of Vijaykanth's movies. Leave that aside, now I am firm believer in the miracles of Murugan. If only the Indonesians had built a temple for him there ...

11 comments:

Ramses said...

Rameshwaram laiyum idhe reel vidarango.

Anonymous said...

Don't you think all other incarnations of Murugan were also 'invented' under some similar circumstances?

But the best customized Hindu product is Pillayar. I've even seen "Muqabla" Pullayar. Whatever that means.

Anonymous said...

Mr.senthil
I used to see your dabbler.But don't post any comments, as I find many of the comments posted confirms a friendly group exchanging personnel views on your views.
But the sunami katha subramanian piece made me to share something.
In many parts were sunami showed her anger-the unaffected places are only place of worship.(including Indonosia)It is strange in some places the shrine or the place of worship is not affected even though nearby places
devastated. It is as mysterious as sunami perhaps make people like you to become a Believer
ramananvsv@gmail.com

A Deeper Shade of Blue said...

People drinking sweet sewage in Mahim. This after warnings the doing so would result in hepatitis infecions. I can almost here the idols saying to one another "I swear one more teaspoon and I will moo"

swami said...

Subramaniam Swamy may use this as a publicity stunt...

Or he might sue Tiruchendur for libel...

He might do either - he too is difficult to predict..

Anonymous said...

or the sea receding might have been a fortiutus trough of the wave or a diffraction pattern...

Anonymous said...

@ vidya : YES!! still they do.

Mahadev said...

hmmm.. I'm from Tiruchendur.
Varo oru Bhakthar(devottee) did that and it is his belief.
Lets leave that :)

I agree people are snatching the money,Beach is NOT clean and used as public toil*t.

we will improve in due course of time.

Surya said...

I think most temples managed by the HRCE are like that with Bad Priests. I myself experienced it in Kanchi Ekambareshwar temple and also in Tiruvannamalai.(Mostly the Priests there asking for Money). I attribute it to the indifference of the government to its employees welfare. But that doesnt make me turn into a nonbeliever.
Oh btw..if you need visa visit Chilukur Balaji temple also know as Visa Balaji, near Hyderabad. FYI - The strictly prohibit donations too.

gonzalez said...

i go to tirchendur to see murugan alone, not get distracted by priest thieves or unclean dirty beaches.

i dont want anyone to believe murugan by compulsion .time will come you too will believe murugan.

Unknown said...

Wow .. strong reply